Head of the Center for Strategic Research Admiral Ali Shamkhani has said the violation of the Islamic Republic's airspace by the U.S. was not an error in the calculations, but an unlawful purposeful act.

Commenting on the legal follow-ups of this military air intrusion, Admiral Shamkhani said that the U.S. didn't mention the loss of one of its most advanced unmanned aerial vehicles at first.

"Later, however, Washington submitted a formal request to Tehran to return the drone. This means that the U.S. must take the responsibility for its blatant act," Shamkhani, the former defense minister, told the Mehr News Agency.

"A kind of sensor which a drone with an espionage mission on Afghanistan border needs is only a photographing one. This drone, however, is equipped with eavesdropping system, calorimeter sensor, and a spectrometer" he said, adding that such a super advanced drone only belongs to CIA and even the U.S. Defense Department is deprived of having such drones.

The captured U.S. drone displayed by Iran

"Our all-inclusive investigations such as the precise calculation of the drone's geographical realm, its special equipment and the time this blatant military air incursion was carried out, prove that U.S. has been deliberate in its violation and not heedless," the admiral announced.

Iran's electronic warfare unit on December 4 took control of the UAV and brought it down. The aircraft was detected in Iranian airspace some 225 kilometers from the border with Afghanistan and brought down with minimum damage. The operation was in fact a full-scale, all-out electronic war between Iran and the United States.

Iran already possesses a high level of expertise in the production of unmanned aircraft. The UAVs currently manufactured by Iran's aviation industry are capable of conducting complex missions.

It is reported that Iranian experts are deciphering this drone which is commonly referred to as Kandahar Beast (Persian: Janevare Kandahar).